eTailer Advertising, Google’s Latest, Marginal Impact of Ratings

By Cleveland Admin

Given the success that Amazon has had with its Amazon Advertising platform, a number of competing eTailers continue to expand their advertising offerings. Most notably, eBay highlighted that in 3Q its Promoted Listings offering grew 120% Y/Y to $103M (by comparison Amazon had ~$3.5B in advertising in 3Q) and Etsy combined external Google Shopping advertisements and internal Promoted Listings onto one platform and saw 30% Y/Y growth in Promoted Listings. Our research has also indicated an appetite for an offering from Chewy, although nothing has been announced to date.

Google Improving Mobile Apparel and Footwear Shopping
In an announcement this week, Google discussed a new feature that allows consumers to view apparel and footwear from across retailers and brands in the main Google search window on mobile devices. The search giant believes that this will allow consumers to more easily find products that they want to buy and connect them with retailers offering these products. This new initiative supports the iterative and experimental approach Google is taking with eCommerce as it tries a variety of different tactics to see what resonates the most with consumers.

High Star Ratings Drive Improved Conversion
A recent analysis from our partners at Pattern found that a 1 star increase in average rating of products led to a 26% increase in conversion rate. Our research had anecdotally indicated that better ratings led to better conversion, and this data from Pattern provides better clarity around the significant impact that better ratings can provide. If you’d like to learn more, Pattern will be hosting a webinar on January 27 that will highlight 20 tactics for improving sales on Amazon in 2020, including SEO, Advertising, Giveaways, Social Media, Content, Subscribe and Save, and Promotions.